Great thread. They should archive this or something.

 

For caster:

Bavarian Autosport has a front control arm bushing that is offset for increased caster. A set of those were placed in my car last week. I'm heading to the track this weekend and will post my impressions after that.

There also are (were?) KMAC plates that allow for camber and caster adjustment.

 

I think i've got some old K-macs if anyone wants them.

 

This is what I find kind of perplexing. I have yet to autocross or track my '06 MCS (although I do plan on doing a few autocrosses a year again, starting next season). I do tend attack the twisties and cloverleafs (maybe a bit harder in the MINI then in previous cars, it's just so damn fun ) and "launch" from stoplights whenever it is possible and responsible to do so. I very rarely find myself screeching or smoking the summer tires however. My over all feeling is that I'm using my vehicle the way it was intended to be used. The fact that there is almost no wiggle room for stock camber adjustment up front is pretty disapointing to me given the rather conservative (and for me insufficient) stock settings. My current theory is that there was a mix-up in the alignment design specs for the MCS and somehow the camber for front and rear were inadvertently swapped by some paper pusher in Munich .

Anyways, it looks like my plan for piecemeal improvement of my ride will need to be changed. First round will be new Dunlops on my ASA JH6s, Helix or IE adj. plates (dependent on cashflow), SPC LRCAs (sounds like these might not be necessary if I don't lower), M7 USS, H-Sport 19mm or 22mm effective RSB, and a good alignment. I had been planning on doing JCW springs + FSDs along with the camber plates, arms, and bars in my third round for improved ride quality, slightly better handling, and a bit of an aesthetic drop, but I might look further into the more street-able coilover options now (had PSS9s installed on a GTI and loved the handling, but became progressively more dissatisfied with the ride quality despite a good deal of tweaking with the pre-load and damper settings).

Back on topic (sorry about that), I am going to shoot for -2 camber, 1/16" toe out up front and -1 to -1.2 camber, no toe in the rear once I have the camber plates/RCAs (thanks to the sage advice offered in this and other threads by the vehicle dynamics geniuses who frequent this board). This seems like it would be a good compromise of grip to tread life given my driving style and intended use of my MINI. If I went with the 22mm RSB, it sounds like it may be prudent to add 1/16" of toe in to the rear to keep rotation more progressive / safe. Any comments or opinions on this?

Thanks again, and sorry for being so wordy

 

...more neg camber in the rear and almost none up front is designed in to keep some folks out of the weeds ...you know them...on the cell phone, eating triple heart attack hamburgers while negotiating on and off ramps.

 

LOL, I hear yah. I do increasingly get the feeling that I am surrounded by idiots w/ a death wish when out on the road...

I can hardly count the number of times I have seen people playing movies on their dash mounted NAV systems while tooling down the highway at 70 MPH in the past few years

 

Looks like I'm running more negative camber in the rear (same as the front!) than most folks here plus more rear sway bar to compensate. The only issue with this setup is trail braking can get a little squirrelly, so it's important to select rear brake pads with a relatively lower coefficient of friction thanks to the MINIs famously strong rear brake-bias.

Just goes to show how interrelated everything is, and why mods must be selected with care.

 

No mistake on MINI's part. The toe and camber settings for stock are as they were intended. More negative camber in front is good for aggressive driving but may be more jarring for daily use and wear tires on the inner front edges. If you drive normal street speeds you rarely will make full use of -2 degrees of front camber. Stock MINIs whether MC or MCS have about -0.5 degrees in the front for camber.

Rear camber is about -1.0 to -1.6 usually and you can make this more or less with an adjustable rear control arm or a little adjustment can be made on more recent MINIs for the rear via a small adjuster. More negative camber in the rear can increase understeer so about -1 degree is OK if you have -2 in the front.

For you, 22mm RSB with softest setting and 1/16" toe in for the rear with -1 degree camber is fine.

Which Dunlop tires and what size were you going to use? Will you have more than one set of tires or not?

 

I gotcha. My comment about the mixup w/ stock camber specs was just an unsuccessful attempt at sarcastic humor on my part.

I've been running 205/50/16 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx on my 16 x7 ASA JH6s and, aside from the uneven wear, was pretty happy with them before they got chewed up by one of those steel construction plates. I've been toying with the idea of going to the 215/45/16 Falken Azenis RT-615s, but probably won't due to my lingering concerns about wet traction/hydroplaning on the highway in heavy rain (ran the RT-215s w/o issues on my last car, but it had AWD).

I wanted to try to stick with one wheel/tire set for summer daily driving and sporadic autocross use as I have little available space to store another set of wheels/tires and would rather spend the money elsewhere, but we'll see. I might bundle a set of Azenis w/ 5Zigen FN01R-C wheels for dedicated motorsports use next spring, budget permitting.